Ted Cruz downplays immigration shutdown chatter

DALLAS — In a rollicking speech to conservative activists Saturday afternoon, Ted Cruz predicted that major Republican wins in 2014 and 2016 would spell the end of Obamacare, and he defended the government shutdown that resulted from the last major push to roll back the law.

But talking to reporters after his speech, Cruz declined to say whether he’d tempt another shutdown in his effort to fight his top current issue — immigration reform — instead accusing President Barack Obama of engaging in brinkmanship on the issue.

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“There is one person — and one person only — talking about a government shutdown, and that is the White House,” Cruz told reporters, asserting Obama is using “smoke and mirrors” to try “to change the topic” from economic sluggishness and snafus in his signature Obamacare health care reform law. “But at the end of the day, it’s not going to work,” said the Republican senator from Texas, predicting a backlash against executive actions Obama is considering to soften the treatment of undocumented immigrants.

“If the president wants this election to be a referendum on amnesty, then I am going to enjoy welcoming minority leader Harry Reid back to Washington, because I guarantee you the American people are not interested in a president who thinks the No. 1 priority in this country, rather than dealing with the problems we have, is granting amnesty to millions of people who are here illegally,” Cruz said.

In recent days, at least a couple of Republican lawmakers who have taken a leading role in the immigration debate have suggested using the budgeting process to block funding for any executive branch action on immigration. That could set the stage for a showdown over funding the entire federal government, which could lead to a shutdown of the sort that Cruz helped force last fall over Obamacare funding.

Democrats and the White House have, in fact, spotlighted the prospect of another shutdown, even as Republicans, who absorbed the bulk of the blame for the 2013 shutdown, have shown little appetite for a repeat — especially not one before the midterm elections.

Still, Cruz defended the shutdown in his Saturday afternoon speech before a summit of activists organized by the Koch-brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity.

“If you listen to the Democrats, if you listen to the mainstream media — although I repeat myself — they will tell you the fight that you and I waged last summer, last fall didn’t succeed,” he said. “Well, I think the proof is in the pudding. As a result of that fight, millions of Americans stood up together and elevated the national debate about the incredible harms Obamacare is causing,” he said. (Cruz ignored a question from POLITICO afterwards about why the same reasoning wouldn’t apply to the immigration debate.)

Cruz identified Obamacare and immigration reform — along with government overreach and foreign policy — as the subjects on which Democrats are most vulnerable in this fall’s elections, which he predicted would yield huge wins for Republicans.

“I’m convinced that we’re going to win in 2014, and 2016 is going to be even better. And in the year 2017, a Republican president in the Rose Garden is going to sign a bill repealing every word of Obamacare,” Cruz proclaimed, drawing one of the many lusty standing ovations he received from activists.

In introducing Cruz, AFP president Tim Phillips said “we need more folks like him in the United States Senate” and praised him for the times he “stands up to his own party leadership.”

“You know, back in Washington there is a diet that is now very, very popular. It’s called the Obama diet,” he said. “Works very, very well. You simply let Putin eat your lunch every day. And it is sad just how true that is.”

“There are a lot of folks in Washington who think the way you win elections is you go to the mushy middle, you blur everything, you stand for nothing,” he said. “It doesn’t work.”

The AFP summit had the feel of something of an early 2016 GOP presidential cattle call, featuring appearances from Govs. Mike Pence of Indiana and Rick Perry of Texas as well as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Dr. Ben Carson.